The Hammer of Fire (5 page)

“I do not fear you nor anyone else,”
whispered the dwarf back to his elder and once again fingered the
long knife at his side, “you’ve always been too much a thinker and
not a doer. Craggen Steep is old and tired. The sons of sons of
sons are in command and energetic, fresh blood is excluded. That is
death for any nation, even one as well guarded and powerful as our
own.”

“Cool your ardor, nephew, contact Delius and
his friends. Convince them the need for action is urgent but be
cautious as well. I know your tendencies and if this plot gets back
to the Firefists then all our lives are in jeopardy.”

The young dwarf nodded his head just as
Cleathelm Firefist made his way over to the duo. “Hello Uldex, I
didn’t think they invited riff-raff such as yourself to these sorts
of things but then I remembered that you’re nephew to illustrious
Borrombus Blackiron, Councilor Six more formally. Can I have
someone get you a drink, something to eat, some proper clothes, a
band for your beard, and perhaps even manners might be found
somewhere?”

“I’m just leaving, Cleathelm,” said Uldex
with a smile and a polite nod of his head. “My mother wanted to
know what time Uncle Borrombus would return to the estate this
evening as she needs to plan breakfast in the morning. You know how
these social occasions can go on all night and tire out our
elders.”

“Run along now, nephew,” said Borrombus with
a large smile on his face. “Cleathelm, we haven’t spoken in months.
I heard about your promotion to chief apprentice of the Deep Forge,
that is quite a hammer in your father’s belt, he must be extremely
proud,” went on the jolly dwarf as he hooked his arm under the
apprentice’s and dragged him off in the direction of a large group
of revelers.

Uldex watched them, his face a mask of
ferocity, and then he turned and walked towards the bar where a
beautifully dressed young dwarf poured out thick beer into massive
mugs. The young dwarf with the scar walked directly behind the bar,
reached underneath, and grabbed a decanter of some darkish
fluid.

“You can’t …,” started the bartender but a
scowl from Uldex silenced the sentence long before it finished.

“Who will stop me … you?” he said, turned,
filled a mug, and walked away from the party.

Milli and Brogus continued to argue as they
made their way down a narrow corridor in the upper levels of the
citadel where apprentices and lower class dwarves made their home.
The rock walls were smoothed to a fine finish but an odor of wet
laundry hung densely in the air and the ruts in the stone floor
were worn by the passage of thousands of years of apprentices. “We
can’t do anything without Dol,” said the heavyset dwarf as his feet
slammed into the ground with plodding steps. The apprentice
quarters were squat, low, and not particularly clean. Built after
the liberation of Craggen Steep from the elementals and sized for
dwarves, they had low ceilings, narrow halls, and impossibly small
chambers where generation after generation of young dwarfs learned
the craft of metal smithing. “He’s set in his ways. He wants to
steal it but he won’t do it. He’s stubborn as a tree, once he says
something there’s no changing him.”

“You think I don’t know that, Brogus?” said
Milli looking down at her feet as they walked. “Ugh, I hate coming
up to this level of the mountain, I can’t believe they make you
live in these little cubby holes.”

“You’ve got it good,” said Brogus as a young
dwarf staggered passed and attempted to fit a key into a door
across from them. “You’ve got the wrong cubby, Tomos. You’re one
corridor over.”

The drunken dwarf waved his hand, mumbled
something, and continued to try and fit his key in the lock.

“That’s Minodon’s,” tried Brogus again,
“He’ll pound you to goblin size if you wake him. He’s on day shift
at the forge.”

Milli looked at her companion and shook her
head, “They’re all like that now. Anyone from one of the three
families doesn’t try because promotion is certain, and the rest of
you have given up because there is no chance for advancement. We
have to get out of here. The city is dying.”

“So why didn’t you help me back there? If you
had tried to tell him then he would have gone along, you know I’m
right Milli. You can convince any dwarf of anything with those big
yellow eyes of yours. We’re helpless against them.”

A low cough caught the duos attention as they
rounded a corner in the apparently endless maze of the upper
corridors and a dwarf figure stepped out towards them. Brogus’s
hand immediately went to his side where he fingered a knife when he
spotted a young dwarf with a scar down the left side of his face
appear out of the shadows. “Don’t sneak around like that, Uldex,”
he said and positioned himself between the newcomer and Milli.

“Hello, Millasandra,” said Uldex with a nod
of his head to Milli. “It’s good to see you again. I’ve missed
you.”

“Don’t even try it,” said Brogus as he put
his hand on the dwarf’s chest and pushed him back a step. “She
doesn’t want to talk to you and don’t forget what happened last
time we tangled.”

Uldex eyes flickered briefly at Brogus and
then he turned back to Milli, “We need to talk about the Hammer of
Fire, Milli.”

The Halfling girl crossed her arms in front
of her slim chest, her lips narrowed, her eyes turned cool, and she
shook her head, “What do we have to talk about at all?”

Brogus glared at the other dwarf, his eyes
raging with fire, “What do you know about the hammer anyway?”

“Keep out of this, Brogus,” said Uldex with
another quick glance at Brogus, “I’m the one who put the idea of
stealing the thing in Milli’s head in the first place.”

“That’s not true,” said Brogus his voice
raising as several passers-by glanced in their direction.

“Can we talk somewhere privately?” said Uldex
and took a step closer to Milli. “I owe you an apology … from
before.”

“I took that apology out on your face,” said
Brogus as Milli stood silently with her arms crossed on her chest
and her eyes still cool with disdain.

“Just because I let you beat me once doesn’t
mean I will let it happen again,” said Uldex and turned to face
Brogus directly. His lips curled into a snarl and his chin jutted
forward like a mountain ram ready to slam heads with a rival.

“Let me?”

“Let you!”

“Brogus,” intervened Milli, and put her hand
on the big dwarf’s shoulder, “let me and Uldex talk for a minute,
will you please?”

“I don’t like him, Milli,” said Brogus and
took a step towards the dwarf with the long scar who stood his
ground and glared back. The two continued to glare at one another
until Milli spoke again.

“I know you don’t, Brogus, but I’m a big
girl, I can take care of myself, now, please, let Uldex and me talk
alone for a moment. You’re attracting too much attention,” this
last as she looked around at several small groups of young
apprentices that traversed the same hallway as them. One was a
group of dwarves, just finishing a shift at one of the forges to
judge by their filthy clothes and the smell of cinder that emanated
from them, talking just around the bend. One of the young fellows
kept glancing in the direction of the two belligerents and
Milli.

Brogus looked at Milli for a moment, his dark
eyes like little coals and then turned back to the dwarf with the
scar, “I’ll be right over there, so don’t try anything funny.”

Uldex gazed back at him impassively with his
jaw firm but said nothing and eventually Brogus, with one final
sneer, turned and walked a few yards away to leave the two
alone.

Uldex leaned forward and pounded his fist
into his hand, “Milli, why aren’t you getting ready to take the
damn thing already? I thought we had this all settled. I already
told my uncle and he’s working with the First Edos. What are you
doing here in the upper levels and where is that freak Delius?”

“Dol won’t do it,” said Milli with a shrug of
her slender shoulders. “And he’s not a freak.”

“You said you could convince him; tonight’s
the night, after that they’re going to lock the thing up in the
Hall of Relics and you’ll never get at it. He might be a freak you
like, Milli, but you can’t get around it, he’s a freak.”

“Dol won’t do it unless there is some grand
scheme to be achieved,” said Milli with a shake of her head that
sent her hair swirling so that it brushed against Uldex. “I thought
reminding him of being passed over for promotion, again, would be
enough but it wasn’t. He needs a reason to steal it. He’s like
that. He’s slow to act, always thinking, and meditating. It’s that
damned tree blood in his veins, however it got there. And, I don’t
like that word, don’t use it again.”

The dwarf breathed in for a moment, the fresh
scent of her hair even stronger than the wet odor of decay that
permeated the hallways, and blinked his eyes a couple of times
before he managed to gather his thoughts. “Just stealing? Is that
what he thinks? It’s a much grander scheme than that. This isn’t
just about the hammer; it’s about all of Craggen Steep, the malaise
that’s swept through this place. The High Council is corrupted, the
three families are stagnant.”

“None of that matters to Dol. You don’t know
him like I do, Uldex. When Dol signed his apprentice papers it
meant something to him.”

“Those things don’t mean anything! Young
dwarves break their apprenticeships all the time. All you have to
do is pay the thing off later and nobody cares. I bet half the High
Council members did it and almost every story you hear about one
hero or another starts off with a dwarf abandoning his
apprenticeship,” said Uldex speaking with passion, his hands waving
in front of his scarred face. He also moved a few inches closer to
Milli and breathed in deeply.

“He’s a quarter tree, once he sets his roots
into something he won’t let go. We need to find something heroic to
do once we steal the hammer and then he’ll go along. He doesn’t
care about the High Council, or the malaise of Craggen Steep, or
about your schemes to take over with your uncle.”

“What about Corancil? He took over in Das’von
and Stav’rol. They say he’s building an army to invade the
southlands and unite the entire continent as a single empire. Isn’t
that reason enough to steal the hammer, to join his army? Think of
the adventure, the riches. I’d do it myself if I could hold the
thing. And I’d take you with me, Milli. All over the world, to see,
to do, to live!”

“We thought of that,” said Milli as her
cheeks reddened slightly and she flicked her head, sending her hair
in a whirl around her face, “Dol doesn’t want to join an army. He
wants to do something by himself. I know him, Uldex. He’ll never do
it without a plan and without Dol no one can wield the thing.”

Uldex looked at Milli for a long time and
they stood gazing at one another. “What ever happened with us?”

Milli rolled her eyes, “You were sleeping
with every dwarf maiden of good family who couldn’t resist your bad
boy charm as I recall. It wasn’t a short list.”

“Oh, there was that; what if I told you I’d
reformed?”

“I wouldn’t fancy you if you turned into a
good boy,” said Milli with a grin.

“Well then,” said Uldex with a smile and a
wink.

“And I’ve gone off bad boys,” she replied
with a frown.

“Where does that leave us?”

“Nowhere,” said Milli sharply. “Talk to your
uncle or the First Edos, they’ve got to have an idea of what Dol
can do with the hammer, something heroic, something for the ages,
something people will talk about forever.”

Uldex pounded his fist into his hand again,
“There isn’t time, you have to understand, Milli, they’re going to
lock thing in the Hall of Relics after tonight. It’ll be guarded
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; you have to convince
Dol tonight.”

Milli shook her head and pursed her lips,
“It’s you who doesn’t understand Uldex. Dol’s mind is made up. You
have to go back to your uncle, find something for Dol to do, and
then we’ll steal the thing wherever they lock it up. The First Edos
is on our side, that’s what you said.”

Uldex shook his head and looked at the
ground, “You know that this is about more than stealing the hammer,
Milli. The Firefists have had control of the High Council for too
long now. It’s time for a change at the top and stealing the hammer
is only the first part of the plan. Once the Blackirons take
control, things will start changing around here. We’ll announce
ourselves publicly to the world. Send an army of our finest
soldiers to join Corancil in the invasion of the southlands, we’ll
become an important nation in the new empire being forged. You have
to convince Dol, Milli. You can do it; you can convince any dwarf
of anything. There are probably less than a dozen girls on the
whole mountain that aren’t dwarves, and you’re by far the
prettiest. This is important, Milli. There is a lot more going on
than I’ve told you about.”

“Keeping secrets again, Uldex?” said Milli
with a shake of her head and she put her hands on her hips.

“It’s not like that, Milli,” said Uldex his
voice raising on octave as he held his hands out towards her. “I
don’t know for certain what my uncle has in mind but the Blackirons
have stood behind the Firefists for too long. I don’t know what the
plan is, I don’t know anything that my uncle doesn’t want me to
know, I just hear hints, rumors, things, but the Firefists, they’re
crafty and powerful.”

“So you are keeping secrets,” said Milli.

“It’s a feeling, an idea, I don’t know
anything for certain, but Borrumbus, he’s up to something and I
want to be part of it. I want to get in early because whoever comes
out on top is going to be an important person, Milli. I could be
that somebody if there’s a change at the top. You could be there
with me, if you wanted,” he finished and put his hand on her
shoulder. “We could be there together.”